Here we are approaching the end of another football season, and I just want to take a minute to pour a little out for our deposed champions, the New England Patriots. Like most people in this country, I can't stand the Patriots. Their air of superiority. Their constant scandals. Their fancy dog playing quarterback. It's all just a bit much. But in the past twelve months, they have helped people do the thing that is most important to all sports fans, waste time arguing about dumb things and filling hours and brain capacity that would otherwise be left to focus on "work" and "family" and "remembering to pay back your friend all that money you owe him." (Sorry, Brian.) Deflategate was so dumb, and that made it the gift that kept on giving. We all agreed that on some level it was stupid, but once we conceded that, it gave us license to argue about air pressure and laws of physics. Think about how grandiose and dumb that is. It's exactly what's fun about sports. So thank you, Deflategate Patriots. But also, good riddance.

Onto the (digital) tape!

1. Let's start with the NFL conference championship games. Sunday started off with a great Patriots-Broncos game. After letting the Broncos jump out to a 7-0 lead, the Pats came back and scored a touchdown only for their kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who was perfect all season in extra points, finally blew one.

__2. Peyton, even threw some good passes which hasn't always been the case this year... __

3. Even Tony Romo—or at least a guy who looks a lot like him?—had a great time!

4. Then, down 20-12 late in the fourth quarter and facing fourth and ten, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski found a little magic.

5. And then again on fourth and goal, they found a little more magic.

6. But even though it looked like the Pats might have had a storybook ending coming their way, the missed PAT came back to haunt them. They just couldn't get it done. The Broncos are going to the Super Bowl.

__7. In the late game, it didn't take long for the Panthers to blow things wide open against the Cards. Ted Ginn showed off some fancy footwork on a 22-yard TD run that had him cover way more than 22 yards. __

__8. And of course an adorable child's day was made. __

9. Then Cam Newton was appropriately Cam Newton-y.

10. And that was all the scoring Carolina needed to win. Of course they went on to score 49 points—including 6 on this touchdown pass, where Newton gets hit but is still smiling because he knows he got the pass where it needed to go. So congrats Denver and Carolina, now we have two weeks to prep for Cam Newton Super Bowl hot takes.

__11. In basketball, David Blatt got fired by the Cavs, as illustrated in this great Vine from Bleacher Report.

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